Austin Whittall

The ultimate guide to Patagonia's cryptids, mythical beasts and legendary creatures.
From lake monsters to giants, from dwarves to surviving prehistoric beasts: a Patagonian bestiary.
If you find any useful information, or just like my blog, a link back would be great!

Contact Me

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

This will be my last post for 2009. A long year is coming to an end. Personally it has been a very positive year in many nice ways. Lets all hope that 2010 is even better for all of us.

Happy New Year!

Video showing Lake Nahuel Huapi - Nahuelito's home

Below is a video I uploaded on YouTube. I filmed it last Sunday (27.10.09) close to Villa Campanario, Peninsula San Pedro, San Carlos de Bariloche. It shows Lake Nahuel Huapi.

I filmed the video facing northwards, the left side of the image is the west. In the middle is Victoria Island, (see my post on Patagonian bears). To the right (east) of it, is Peninsula Huemul. Behind the Peninsula is the lake's Huemul Fjord where Garrett saw Nahuelito in 1910. At the extreme right is the tip of San Pedro Peninsula and (out of the image) about 200 m (650 ft.) behind me is "Campanario Fjord", where Nahuelito was also sighted.

In the audio, the wind can be heard. The relentless Patagonian wind. It is midday on a slightly cloudy and very cold Summer day. Due to the season, the lake's level is quite high (see how the bushes on the rocky beach are awash in the waves). As summer advances, the water level drops leaving a beach about 15 m (45 ft.) wide.

It is, like al Patagonian lakes, cold and oligotrophic (very transparent and low in nutrients and cloprophyll), so the chances that it can be home to some carnivorous animal are small. See my post on the Sustainability issue.

Lake Quillen, with Lanin volcano behind. From [1].

With a surface area of 24 km2 (9,2 sq.mi.) it is quite small; it is also relatively shallow with a maximum depth of 155 m (508 ft.). It is on the Atlantic Ocean side of the Continental water divide, and it drains towards the east through the Quillen River into the Aluminé River, a tributary of the Limay - Rio Negro basin.

Quillen, which in the language of the Mapuche natives (Mapudungun) means strawberry, is protected by the Lanín National Park.

Gregorio Alvarez wrote about a "cuero uñudo or "hide with claws" seen at the River, at Quila Chanquil (Mapudungun for "where three rivers meet") by a local named Eusebio Cisternas.

Cisternas also saw the creature by the Quillen River, shortly after it leaves Lake Quillen. It was slightly smaller than the hide of a yearling calf and was holding on to a tree trunk by the river.

This clawed creature, a kind of manta ray with claws along its body, is described in detail in our post on "cuero".

It drags itself out of the water and lies flat on the ground, when someone walks over it, it quickly wraps around its victim and captures it with its claws. Tightly rolled up, it rolls back into the river or lake where it eats its prey safely inside its lair.

The following map shows the area where the cuero was seen. The upper red dot shows Quila Chanquil, and the lower one, Lake and River Quillen.
To the south of the map, by San Martín de los Andes is Lake Lacar, home to a "lake bull" and above it Lake Huechulafquen, home to another lake creature, Huechulito.

Tuesday, December 29, 2009

An inexperienced observer on a lake cruise at Lake Nahuel Huapi, Argentina, only expects to see beautiful mountains, forests and the deep blue lake. Some gulls will fly beside the ship to eat the biscuits that the crew or passengers feed them with. But beyond the wind and the froth covered waves on the lake, the average tourist does not expect to see anything unusual.

But, if some infrequent circumstances come together, then the tourist will see something unexpected, and will conclude that it is lake monster.

On a calm day (not very frequent at most Patagonian lakes - the persistent westerly winds tend to stir up waves) when the lake is like a mirror, a swimming animal will surely attract our tourist's attention.

If it is a bobbing gull or a swimming huala, it will not be a surprising event; but if the animal is a wild boar or a deer swimming in the lake, then our tourist will be startled (most tourists ignore the fact that there are boars and deer in the Andean forests at Nahuel Huapi National Park).

Another animal, the guanaco, is according to Charles Darwin a good swimmer: The guanacos readily take to the water: several times at Port Valdes they were seen swimming from island to island.[3] Guanaco are found all over Patagonia (though they are rarely seen at Lake Nahuel Huapi, they are abundant in most of the southern lakes).

So, what would one of these animals look like?

From my post on swimming deer is the following photograph of a local Huemul deer (at Nahuel Huapi these are extermely rare, but on the other hand European Red deer are quite common):

The first photograph shows the “hut” that the Sheffield family lived in. I guess (as the image’s caption says nothing), that Juana Sheffield is the girl sitting on the left of her mother with her smaller brother (and sister?) in front of her. To the right, Mr. Frey is leaning against the hut (wearing a wide brimmed hat).

At Bariloche, last Saturday, I had the chance to photograph several documents on exhibit at the Museo de la Patagonia “Francisco P. Moreno” such as a facsimil of the letter written by Mr. Martin Sheffield to Clemente Onelli regarding the “Plesiosaur” at Lake Epuyen (see my posts on this lake cryptid).

Continuing with the feral (wild) cattle entry posted earlier today, we will now look into another monster, the wolf-bull.

The “Chupeitoro” or “Lobo-Toro” (some write it Lofo-Toro or Quenpeitoro) myth of the Mapuche is a patent example of the assimilation of wild cattle into the native’s lore.

The Mapuche used the Spanish words “lobo” and “toro” (wolf and bull respectively), to name it.

It was bull-sized and had long hair very similar to that of the feral (wild) cows found at Lake Argentino (we mentioned them in our last post on Wild Cattle)- it roared and howled like a wolf yet it was herbivore. It could be found all over Patagonia.[1]

Perhaps the large European dogs or a now extinct local Patagonian wolf may have inspired the wolf part of this weird hybrid (see our post on Patagonian wolves).

Lobo-toro is incorrectly mistaken in some texts for Elengassen (see my post on Elengassen); but they are very different beings, one, Elengassen, a stone throwing monstrous cave dweller, the other a wolf-like bull.

Monday, December 28, 2009

Argentine millionaire and dandy, scion of the Anchorena dynasty, Aaron de Anchorena (1877-1965) is a very charming character.

I stumbled across him while reading a very interesting book [1] on the toponomy of Nahuel Huapi National Park (toponomy is the explanation of the origin of place names; did you ever wonder why a river or a hill was named in a certain way?, toponomy tells you the story behind the name).

Getting back to Anchorena, he was an aviator (in the early days of aviation) and an enthusiastic big game hunter. But above all, he was very rich.

He organized an expedition to Patagonia in 1901/02 to Chubut, Rio Negro and Neuquén, during which he hunted sea wolves, guanaco, wild cattle and wild goats.

Anchorena 1901-1902 hunting expedition. From [2]

He visited the region when it was still a wild and mostly unknown area. He immediately fell in love with it, and after visiting Victoria Island on Lake Nahuel Huapi where he camped and hunted wild goats, he met Argentine explorer and scientist Francisco Pascasio Moreno and enlisted his help to secure ownership of the island.

By law, islands in Argentina belong to the Federal Government, so Anchorena was unable to own Victoria Island, yet he managed to have a law passed through Congress (Ley 5263) in 1907 which leased it to him for 99 years.

He soon built a shipyard, planted crops, introduced exotic plants, trees and animals (so that he and his friends could hunt them). Subjected to relentless criticism, he quit his lease in 1911 and purchased a plot of land close by, at Huemul Peninsula.

The interesting part of this story is that he brought into what is now a National Park, animals from other parts of the world and set them free on the island; these were red and axis deer, wild boar, pheasants and... brace yourself, this is really something unbelievable, he introduced brown bears (Ursus arctos) which he had purchased in Europe (this is something that could only be done in those days - imagine the ecological havoc that such an aciton could cause).

These are very large bears found exclusively in the Northern Hemisphere (from Canada, Alaska to Siberia, and Europe). They are big and mean. They can weigh up to 680 kg (1,500 lb).

All the references that I have found state that they apparently did not adapt to the island and died.[1]

I am certain that the first pair died during the trip, [3] yet he brought a second pair from Germany and another from Scotland. Did these die or did they survive? Did the keep to the island or escape swimming across the lake? Would Mr. Anchorena choose to keep quiet about his bears to abate criticism about his lavish life style? Did he take them with him to the mainland when he moved to his new ranch at Huemul Peninsula.

He also introduced European wild boars in his ranch at Huemul, which later (1999) swam across the Lake Nahuel Huapi returning to Victoria Island. They have successfully colonized it and are being eradicated.[5]

Not only are boars swimmers, brown bears are also very good swimmers, they enjoy the water (see the following photograph):

Nowadays there are no bears living in the cold or temperate areas of South America. The southernmost bears' habitat is in the tropical areas of Bolivia (Andean or spectacled bear). So Northern Hemisphere bears in Patagonia would occupy a unique niche without competitors. The question is, could they have survived outside of the island?

Perhaps they could have adapted fairly well to Nahuel Huapi's environment.

It has a similar climate to their Boreal home. Though food is not abundant, they may have found some exploitable resources.

Fish, even though at that time salmonids (trout) were just being introduced into the lakes so they would not be found in large numbers, the bears could have eaten them.

Insects and berries (not too abundant either), small rodents and marsupials could have been exploited as food.

I will keep on searching for information on this intriguing subject, which could explain unexpected bulky lake creatures seen later (i.e. Garret in 1910 who reported a big water creature close to the island at Paso Coihue at the base of Huemul Peninsula- read more in our post on Nahuelito).

New information - Jan 25th, 2010

I have posted on Patagonian Bearsnot the imported exotic ones, but on the possible existence of native bears in Patgonia.

Cows and horses[*] were unknown to the native Americans until the Spaniards introduced them during the conquest; they had never been seen by the natives before and the fear or surprise that these beasts caused could have deeply impressed them, inspiring the many myths involving bulls and magic Calimayo horses.

Cattle frequently ran wild because they escaped from their enclosures and returned to their natural untamed ways in the Andean forests. Their mythical charm may have been heightened by their ferocious character: wild cattle are bad, mean and dangerous beasts.

Patagonian Creole Bull. "The father of the Herd". From [2].

English explorer Musters (in 1869/70) had a nasty experience in what is now Chubut province, at the fork where Huemul and Carrenleufu rivers merge. He took part of an ill fated wild cattle hunt in which a bull killed a horse, dismounted its Indian rider and trampled Musters breaking two of his ribs.[1]

The wide range of “bull-like” creatures reported at several Patagonian lakes (see our posts on these Lake Bulls, could actually be a real bull or cow inside a lake.

Feral (i.e. wild) cattle have often been seen in Patagonia close to the water, frolicking in the lakes; Prichard at Lake Argentino (1901) saw an “old yellow bull knee-deep in the lake, drinking”.[2]

How did these wild European cows get into Patagonia?

There were no cows in America when the Spaniards arrived, all were brought from Spain. The first cattle were introduced into Argentina in 1549, they reached the Pampas in the 1580s and found a very favorable habitat for expansion. They moved southwards towards Patagonia where natural selection and tough environmental constraints shaped them into a new variety, the “Creole” breed.

Cattle was taken into Patagonia in 1781 to the town of Floridablanca, at San Julián (49°18’ S, 67°42’ W), which was soon abandoned.[3]

Cattle was also taken to a Spanish settlement at Valdés Peninsula (42°28’ S, 64°28’ W), from where they moved westwards towards the Andes after the Tehuelche and Mapuche raided and destroyed the colony in 1810.[4]

The Spanish towns in Chile’s Arauco region, razed in the first wars with the Mapuche (1598-1641) and the abandoned Jesuit Missions in northern Patagonia also had cattle which ran wild in the Andean forests.

All of these stray cows and bulls were the founders of the Patagonian breed of Creole cattle that still survives in some isolated spots of Patagonia in a wild state.

Amazing wild Patagonian cows

One of these spots where wild Creole cows can be found is the “Los Glaciares” National Park in southwestern Santa Cruz Province where they live in the mountains between Lake Argentino’s fjords and the Southern Continental Ice Field.

This population of wild cows is unique because it has adapted extremely well to the tough cold climate by the glaciers where it freezes to below -10°C in winter (14°F). They are the only group of cows in the world with this ability to resist the cold.

However, being exotic animals, Creole cows harm the environment; they trample and eat the saplings and young sprouts of the local trees and feed on the lichens that grow on the rocks. They also compete against the huemul and guanaco displacing them in their foraging activities.

They have been studied by a team from an Argentine University (Universidad Nacional de Lomas de Zamora) who noted that in less than a century, the short tough hair of the Argentine Creole cattle evolved into a thick fur that can measure up to 10 cm (4 in.) in winter, shortening to 2 cm (0.8 in.) in summer.[5] This shaggy coat gives them a yak-like look and protects them from the cold.

Patagonian Creole Bull. Online source unknown

Prichard, who hunted wild cows in this same area, said that the “As a rule, wild cattle avoid open ground” seeking the protection of the woods.[4] It is in the forests that they can be formidable and dangerous opponents; they are fearsome creatures whose long horns are similar to those of the ancient European uro.

Bagual cattle

Though they were hunted to extinction in Chile they still exist in northern Chilean Patagonian folk tales; at Osorno, there is a Laguna del Toro (Bull’s Lagoon), with the legend of a “bagual” bull that threw himself into its waters preferring suicide to death at the hands of its hunters.

Bagual is a word used in Chile and Argentina referring to wild Patagonian cows and horses. They were also known as “animales lobos” or “wolf animals”, an intriguing name as, “officially” there are no wolves in the whole of South America; however, at our post on Patagonian wolves, there may have been wolves in Patagonia. And these could have inspired the name. Alternatively, there is a strange wolfish bovine, the lobo-toro or wolf-bull, which we will mention in our next post.

I have just returned from a short Christmas break in Bariloche. It was a wonderful long weekend in Patagonia. Summer has just begun and flowers are blooming all over the place. The forest fresh and fragrant. Lake Nahuel Huapi with its fantastic deep blue color and white capped waves. Windy, sunny, cloudy, warm during the day, cold at night the typical Patagonian weather!

Sadly I did not have the chance to see anything strange in the lake (i.e. Nahuelito) or any weird beings in the woods, however I had the chance to go to Bariloche’s Museum (Museo de la Patagonia “Francisco P. Moreno”) where I took some good photographs which will be included in future posts.

I also bought some nice books on my favorite subject (Patagonia) and one of them has given me some interesting information on exotic creatures introduced into the Nahuel Huapi area in the early 1900s which I did not know about and may be of interest to those seeking an answer to the Nahuelito cryptid mystery.

Just a quick escape with my wife from the hectic megalopolis of Buenos Aires (with its hot and sticky December days of over 30°C – 86°F).

The good news is that my book on Patagonian cryptids is finished. Yes, I formally concluded writing, editing, checking, updating and fidgeting with it. It is finished.

Now I will embark on the process of printing it.

By the way, its title is:

Patagonian Monsters. A guide to its Giants, Dwarves, Lake Creatures and Mythical Beasts

I will keep you updated on this undertaking, which, I imagine will not be an easy task.

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Some time ago I posted on cryptozoology (belief in monsters) and wrote about Patagonia's peculiar situation.

On one hand it is a very large surface of land with a small human population, it has a very large quantity of protected areas and National Parks in both Argentina and Chile, yet, it has also has...

suffered some great ecological changes since the early 1900s that may have altered the habitat of many cryptids that appear in the natives’ myths, making it less likely to find these creatures. a. Sheep farming led to overgrazing on the steppe and altered the land available to other grazers.
b.It also led to the over-hunting of puma and condor (considered predators of sheep and lambs).
c. Cattle and horses introduced by the natives in the 1700s altered the forest environment and pushed the local deer (Huemul and Pudu Pudu) into less favorable environments.
d. Hunting by “sportsmen” and farmers have placed both local deer species close to extinction.
e. Salmon and trout introduced into lakes and rivers have preyed on the local relict fish species reducing the Patagonian otter’s food source. Both endemic fish and otter are endangered.
f. Beavers and European Red deer introduced into Patagonia have caused havoc in their habitat.
g. Climate change and global warming affect the formation of glaciers and the downstream fertility due to lack of water.

I have already mentioned the impact caused by salmon and trout (sustainability of monsters). Today I will comment about the severe impact that sheep farming has had on the Guanaco.

Guancaco (Lama guanicoe) is a native variety of camelid - a mammal related to the Asian camels. It is about 1 - 1,2 m (3 to 4 ft.) tall and weighs about 90 kg (200 lb.). It is related to the other South American camelids (alpaca, vicuña and llama). Nowadays there are only some 546 thousand guanaco in Patagonia (1997 data), while at the beginning of the XXth century there were seven million of them. At that time sheep farmers started to kill them arguing that they competed with their flocks for food. Current estimates indicate that before sheep were introduced into Patagonia, there may have been up to 22 million guanaco living on the steppe.[1]

From a peak of 22 million sheep in 1952, the size of the flocks has dropped constantly. Currently there are 10 million sheep in Patagonia, and overgrazing has seriously damaged the environment causing desertification on 30% of the steppe's surface. And this area grows at 3% per year. Natural causes such as Hudson Volcano's 1990 eruption worsen the impact on the steppe's vegetation.[2]

Nevertheless, there are some who are working to revert this serious problem.
Such as a NGO, Conservación Patagónica. (English site).

I am leaving for Patagonia now for a short vacation, I will resume my posts after Christmas.

Legal stuff: Regarding Links to other sites, Non endorsement, Brand Names and trademarks and Other products and vendors, such as 1421 The year China discovered the World, please see our Terms and Conditions.
Regarding Copyright of third parties, please see my FAIR USE NOTICE (items 13.a and 13.b) at our Terms and Conditions page. Thank you.

In a previous post on we mentioned hairy snakes, today I will give more details.

calchá filu, the hairy snake

Argentine military Commander Federico Barbará (1828-1893) who lived many years in the mid 1800s on Patagonia’s northern frontier, fighting against the Puelche natives (a Mapuche/Tehuelche group), recorded their vocabulary and wrote a Puelche-Spanish dictionary. In it he included the name of a lake which the Puelche called “Calchá-filu”. The Spanish meaning of these two words is “hairy snake”,[1]

Gradually, during the XVIIth century the northernmost Tehuelche natives expanded out of Patagonia, across the Negro and Colorado rivers and into the Pampas where they replaced the original natives of Buenos Aires province and became known as the “Pampas” or “Puelche” (the latter, in Mapudungun, the language of the Mapuche, means “Eastern people”).

The Puelche quickly came into contact with the Mapuche tribes living on the eastern foot-hills of the Andes in what is now Neuquén, and they became “Araucanized”, adopting their very convenient language (Mapudungun). The Puelche and Mapuche interacted through war, trade and cattle rustling until they were overtaken by “Western” civilization in the wars of 1879-1883 during which the Argentine government took control of eastern Patagonia (a similar process happened in Chile at the same time).

This explains why the Puelche used a Mapuche word to name a lake in their territory. Perhaps, just like the Mapuche, they also believed that “hairy snakes” were evil creatures.

Mapuche hairy snake

Mapuche oral tradition also mentions these creatures. “Kalfulemu, El Mapuche sin Sombra” was a story told by Abel Kuruuinca to Argentine folklorist Mrs. Bertha Koessler in 1962. In this tale, a native details his experience at the cave of the “salamanqueros” or witches cave, where orgies and debauchery take place.

In the tale, the native says that they lay him down and a “hairy snake coiled up on my chest and did not want to be removed” it kept an eye on him so that he did not escape.[2]

In another story about “Renpulli, la salamanca del lago Lacar”, Kuruuinca gave more details:

“Then a snake, fat as an arm and full of scales and hairy, pounced on his chest trying to suffocate him […] the creature coiled around his neck and hissed and put its toung in his mouth…”[2]

Chiñi filu

The hairy snake is also named “chiñi filu”, which is the “hairy snake of the seas, lakes and rivers”.[3]

Interestingly, this word chiñi is the common Chilean name for skunk (Mephitis chilensis), also spelt "chingue".

Chingue, stamp. Chile (1948). From [4].

We find the same word, (chiñi) in Quechua language. Quechua is a Native American language which is spoken in the Andean region of South America (Perú, Bolivia, Northern Argentina, Chile and Ecuador). It may have found its way into the Mapuche myths because the Inca invaded their territory in the mid 1400s.

The meaning of chiñi in Quechua is “Bat”.

So wether a bat-snake or a skunk-snake, we have a hairy reptile myth spanning the Puelche and Mapuche cultures. What can it be?

Note: there is a widespread myth in Chile about a Flying snake it is described mostly like a snake - bird, with or without feathers, but sometimes it is described as having tough bristles running along its back and no feathers. Is this Piwichén another representation of the hairy snake? or is the flying snake just a myth about strange birds?

Are hairy snakes real?

A hairy reptile is not as improbable as one may expect.

Hair is made from a protein called keratin. Researches checked reptiles and birds trying to see if they had genes that code this protein. And they found that these genes “are not restricted to mammals” because they also code proteins used to form the skin and claws. These keratin genes appeared in a common ancestor to amniotes about 300 million years ago. Amniotes are four legged vertebrates that include mammals, birds and reptiles.[5]

However only mammals have hair follicles and are able to grow hairs. If a reptile acquired that capability, it would be a hairy reptile. But that would require complex mutations. It is quite improbable.

So, my best guess is that the Patagonian hairy snake is not a reptile but a long, slim, svelte mammal such as a Huillín (Lontra provocax), the Patagonian otter. The following image shows one swimming; notice its snake-like appearance which is enhanced by its long tail.

Huillín (Patagonian River Otter). By Fabián Bugnest. From [6].

Endangered Patagonian otters

Huillín is an endangered species and both Argentina and Chile are taking action to prevent its extinction.

For a summary on the current status of Argentine huillín, click Here (in English).

For similar information regarding Chile, click Here, it is the blog (in Spanish) of CODEFF (Comite Nacional Pro Defensa de la Fauna y Flora), a Chilean NGO who is fighting to save the Patagonian Otter.

Monday, December 21, 2009

First map of the Strait of Magellan & Patagonia. Pigafetta (1520). From [1]

Pigafetta, Magellan's chronicler besides writing about the first encounter between the Giant Patagons and the Spanish fleet, also drew the first map of the Strait of Magellan, and of Patagonia.

It is quite unique because unlike modern map conventions, in this map, south is at the top of the map and north at the bottom.

Well known places figure on the map (from top to bottom) Patagonian Strait (now Strait of Magellan), Virgenes Cape, Port San Julián, Regioni Patagonia or Patagonia Region and Solís River (now River Plate).

Calimayo is a word of Quechua origin meaning “river creature” (“cali”, man and “mayuj”, river), Calimayos are mentioned in native myths as lake creatures from Bolivia and northern Argentina to Patagonia.

They are supernatural horses, lake horses. I have mentioned them (and posted an image) in a previous post on Lake Caviahue.

In Southern Santa Cruz province, Argentina is Lake Viedma (49°41’ S, 72°00’ W). It is a large -1.088 km2 (420 sq.mi)- body of water, slightly smaller than Lake Argentino into which it flows, and from there into the Atlantic via Santa Cruz River.

It is located next to the Southern Ice Field and Viedma Glacier flows into the lake.

It was by the tip of this lake according to an article of Buenos Aires daily La Razón (1957) that a geographer named Perry Cook had a strange experience:

I heard a long and vigorous galloping close by. They were hoofs that strode on the fine sand of the water’s edge […] I looked out and had the strange impression that it was a black horse of enormous height, it tallness was abnormal […] he sharply twisted his way and ran into the waters, disappearing in the darkness.[2]

Lake Viedma. From [1].

In the photograph above, Mount FitzRoy (3,405 m - 11,164 ft.) can be seen in the background on the western tip of the lake. At the foot of this imposing mountain is the small village of El Chaltén, "Trekking capital of Argentina".
The photograph was taken from the southern side of the lake, in the steppe. In the foreground are some buildings of a Patagonian "estancia" (ranch).

English Admiral Byron, in 1771 wrote about the gigantic Patagons he had met while sailing along the Patagonian coast. He noted that “so much were their horses disproportioned, that all the people that were with me in the boats, […] swore that they were all mounted upon deer”.[1]

Interestingly, a Spanish Government report written in 1601 about the natives at the Strait of Magellan, it stated that “the Indians ride on horses. But not horses, they appear to be donkeys”.[2]

Donkeys - or Hippidion? at the Strait of Magellan. From [2].

Hippidion horses which were sturdier than modern horses, had shorter and wider legs and resembled donkeys.

I have researched on this subject and found more information on Patagonian donkeys or onagers.

Friday, December 18, 2009

Horses originated in America several million years ago, from there they spread into the Old World where they multiplied and survived. Their American relatives became extinct. Horses were re-introduced into America by the Europeans after 1492. That is the official story.

There may be another one:

Native American Horses

There were two kinds of horses living in Patagonia before the arrival of Europeans; and they are believed to have become extinct at the end of the last Ice Age some 8,000 years ago.

One of them, the primitive Hippidion which appeared about 2.5 million years ago (Ma.), reached Tierra del Fuego; the other, a modern Equus which appeared only about 1 Ma, extended its range to northern Patagonia.

Both co-existed with men, who hunted them and their extinction is quite a mystery since the virtually identical Old World horses introduced by the Spaniards flourished in the same environment.

This has led some authors believe that not all of these horses died, and that some managed to survive until the arrival of the European horses “influenc[ing] the morphology and other sui generis features of the current Creole horse” by interbreeding with them.[1]

In other words, they survived and mated with their European relatives.

Circumstantial evidence

Notice the spotted red and white appearance of the Hippidion's coat (in all the depictions that I found, it is represented with a spotted coat).

French engineer Narcise Parchappe reported in 1828 that “it is notable that nearly all the Indian’s horses are picazos (red and white) and stained in a strange manner; while this variety is very rare among the Creoles”. As these colors were also rarely found in the large herds of wild horses; he thought that the natives selectively bred these strange colored animals.[2]

Actually, these horses were not “picazos” but “overos” of a very special kind. Picazos known as piebald, have a black base coat, while the overos have a solid color with splashes of white.

The native’s variety of overo is known as “overo manchado”; in Spanish, manchado means stained in the sense of something “splattered on”. This color has only cropped up in Argentina in horses from different breeds. The pattern is also atypical and is not related to the spots of any other horse breeds (like apaloosa, sabino or chubari).[3]

Thoroughbred Manchado Overo Horse (but not Criollo). From [3]

Furthermore, it appears as a sudden mutation in animal breeds that don’t have spots such as Criollo, Hackney, Arab and Thoroughbred,[4] this would imply that they could not be selectively bred by the natives.

The pre-Hispanic horses could have introduced this peculiar coat color into the genetic pool of the horses introduced by the Spaniards; and it now appears randomly.

Regarding southern Patagonian horses, Musters wrote during his 1870 journey through Patagonia that “near Port San Julian […] there are numbers of wild ponies, about the size and make of a shelty, which the children play with”.´[5] Could these ponies have been a remnant group of adult Hippidion?

Hr also noted that the Aonikenk horses were “altered […] to a considerable degree from the original [Spanish] race”, and that though they were smaller than them, their heads and legs were larger.[5] This perhaps reflects not an alteration of pure European horses but their interbreeding with pre-Hispanic horses.

Is there other evidence of these surviving prehistoric horses?

Yes, we have the testimony of Spanish conquistador, Captain Juan Fernández who was the first to explore Nahuel Huapi region in 1621. He wrote that the natives on the Limay River had horses.[6]

It could be argued that they had obtained them from the Spanish settlements in southern South America (dating back to the 1530s), which would have given them at least 90 years to come across, tame and master these new beasts.

However there are pre-Hispanic horses in rock art depictions; at Nahuel Huapi Lake one represents a horse riding warrior; it was discovered by Asbjorn Pedersen in 1960.[7]

Pedersen wrote that he was amazed by these horsemen but was even more surprised when he “later noticed that these paintings could be the first tangible manifestation of an extinct fauna, since they do not represent the common horse (Equus caballus), but the American horse (Equus rectidens)”.[8]

These depictions are not contemporary to the Spanish Conquest but ancient because according to D’Orbigny, the Patagonian natives’ “drawings have the uniqueness of never representing animal figures”.[9] This was an exclusive trait of the “ancient” Indians.

Mancha was a Creole horse, that was bred from a group of horses purchased by Dr. Emilio Solanet in Chubut. They had belonged to Tehuelche chief Liempichún.
He had the spotted coat of a Manchado horse. He is famous because he rode from Buenos Aires to Washington DC (16,000 km - 10,000 mi.) between 1925 and 1928.

Notice the different build of the Creole (Mancha in the bottom photograph) in comparison to a thoroughbred (upper photograph). They are shorter and sturdier. Also note the domed nasal bone on Mancha -a feature that characterizes Hippidon.

The intriguing possibility of surviving prehistoric Megafaunal Age horses is very exciting. Perhaps science will unveil the mystery by finding recent remains of both creatures.

Punalka (or Punalca) is a mythical Mapuche creature. It adopts different shapes, perhaps due to local variations in the myth. It may also vary its shape because the natives applied the same name to different kinds of creatures.

Meaning of Punalka

Punalka is an evil spirit whose name in Mapuche language (Mapudungun ) means alka = body, and pun = night; that is: "body of the night".
It was usually applied to ghouls that lived in or by small water bodies such as ponds or watering holes.[1]

Reptilian Punalka

Bio Bio River had its own spirit a "Punalka", which was its owner or gen-ko (See my post on the Bio Bio "reptile"Here). It has been seen at Callaqui "transformed into a great serpent that slid downstream in a "wiño".[2] Wiño or chueca is a curved club that is very similar to a hockey stick and used in the Mapuche chueca game.

Punalka in this myth may actually be the Bio Bio River reptile, described above as a snake.

Wild dog (wolf?) Punalka

There was however another variety, the "punalka dog", which was a "wild dog that lived in isolation in a "chenque"[*] and moved about in the mountains".[3] In this myth, it is a big black dog which takes a young maiden as his wife. She gradually morphs into a she-wolf. They have puppies.

[*] Chenque. In this book quoted here, it is a cave.

Terrestrial wild dogs were reported by Gregorio Alvarez[4] as "wild trehua" in the area close to Lake Lacar. Trehua is the Mapuche word for dog. These were vicious beings (akin to the puma and wild boars).

Could this be the Andean Wolf? Below is a photograph of the only known pelt belonging to an Andean wolf (notice its black color. Dark, like a Punalka):

Andean Wolf pelt. From [5].

In a previous post (Here) we mentioned the trehuaco or "water dog"; it seems that threhuaco and Punalka are two different beings.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Monster trees. We have already mentioned the weird "walking tree" or Inulpamahuida. Today we will comment on two other tree-creatures.

Alihuen

One is the Mapuche Alihuen, which is a dry tree trunk that sometimes appears floating in lakes and rivers. Its branches extended above the water like the contorted arms of a zombie. The Indians believe that these are real creatures, monsters that are harbingers of tragedy.

It has been seen in many Chilean rivers such as Cholchol, Cautín and Quepe.

Sometimes the dead-tree-monster is known as the "dry tree" (árbol seco). [1]

There are monsters of a different kind in Patagonia, they are terryfing and very real. Their power is incredible and they can destroy and ruin a beautiful place in a very short time.

These monsters are not primitive, they are high tech multinational energy companies that under the guise of "sustainable hydroelectric energy" are trying to make a good profit for their shareholders.

Several Patagonian rivers are under attack right now. Economic interests may prevail over sound ecological reasons and ruin a pristine environment.

Futaleufú River dams

Futaleufú River -Mapuche for "big river"- (our previous post Here on the Yelcho Lake creature, mentioned this river, which feeds the lake) is under threat.

Below I quote a very interesting summary by Futa Friends on this serious problem:

Dams and the Energy Chile Needs

The HidroAysen Project is the most ambitious dam proposal in the history of Chile. The Natural Resources Defense Council, International Rivers, and Chilean partners Ecosistemas and Chile Ambiente, are leading the Patagonia Without Dams Campaign. The proposed project threatens every river in Chilean Patagonia from future damming. The HidroAysen project, along with proposing the construction of 5 dams on 2 of Patagonia's most pristine rivers, the Pascua and Baker, plans on building a 2000 km high-voltage transmission line North to Santiago, creating the world's longest clear-cut. The proposed dams would flood rare temperate rainforests and some of Patagonia's best ranching lands. The rainforest areas that the dams and transmission lines would eliminate do not exist anywhere else on the planet. Along with altering Chile's environment from the South to the Central Valley, the project threatens future damming of other rivers in Patagonia. Once the transmission line is in place, rivers such as the Puelo, Yelcho, Palena and the infamous Futaleufu will also be scheduled for damming.[1]

Gold mines that poison the environment

Another threat in the region is gold mining (cyanide is used to separate the metal from the ore - more on this gold mininng and contamination). In Argentina, time and time again, a big corporation (Yamana Gold Inc.) with the connivance of government officials has been trying to set up a gold mining operation at Esquel, right beside the Los Alerces National Park; read more on this Here (No a la Mina).

Did yo know that one gold ring generates 20 tons of mine waste? (read more Here)

Online Resources

For more details, Patagonia Chilena sin represas! (Chilean Patagonia without
dams) has a great website. Check it out Here in English, and this page in Spanish, on the Futaleufú River Project. They have a downloadable book online Here.

Today, I came across an interesting article about kayaking in the Patagonian Andes.[1] In it they mention a lake creature that I had not heard about before: "el Cuervo".

This lake, is located in Chile, 46 km (29 mi.) south of the town of Chaitén, and is fed by the Futaleufú River, whose sources are in the Los Alerces National Park in Argentina. It has a surface area of 116 km2 (44 sq. mi.) and is set at a very low altitude (70 m - 230 ft.); it flows into the Pacific Ocean through the Yelcho River.

It is surrounded by several volcanos (Corcovado and Nevado).

Map showing Lake Yelcho (center-right).

The creature is described in the article as follows:

Cuervo is the leather-backed monster that has long been rumored to dwell in Lago Yelcho. For generations, campesinos have warned their children not to venture near the lake at night.[1]

I had never before heard about this creature, and I am inclined to believe that it is a misspelling of the word "cuero" - the "lake hide" (see my post on it Here). Somehow a letter "v" found its way into the word "cuero" and the outcome has been another word "Cuervo".

Cuervo means crow or raven in Spanish. There are no crows in Patagonia (or in South America), they only live in the Northern Hemisphere.

However we have posted (Here) on a cuero and other strange lake creatures found upstream along the Futaleufú river, at Lake Rosario in Argentina (it is just beyond the right edge of the map above).

To head the expedition, Onelli’s chose his friend Emilio Frey who had worked with him on the Border Commission. The team also included José María Cinaghi, the Zoo’s administrator, its taxidermist, Alberto Merkle; Associated Press correspondent, Mr. Estrella; freelance reporter of Caras y Caretas Magazine, Dr. Vaccari and Mr. Santiago Andueza, a champion target shooter.

On their way

They set out on March 22, 1922 and soon arrived at Bariloche, where they stayed for a while. It was there that Frey wrote about a creature seen at lake Huechulafquen (see our post on HuechulitoHere):

many times I heard respectable neighbors of Junín de los Andes say […] that in the Lake Huachi-Lauquen, at dusk, an animal often appears on its surface, which has more or less the same features of the one that is said to have been seen in Esquel. Very long neck, lizard head, body that must be enormous, because when it submerges it produces a sort of “boiling” in the waters.[1]

After leaving Bariloche, they arrived at Sheffield’s cabin on April 21, where they met his wife and children but not him, he was absent, and would be so for the remainder of the expedition.

Eager to get started he had Sheffield’s son, José take them to the place where the beast had last been seen. The track was:

quite erased; it must have been 30 cm wide [1 ft]. There have been no tracks of the animal since then, which is strange, because according to a statement of the lady [Ms. Sheffield] only 20 days ago Juan had again seen the mysterious animal. [1]

They explored the tiny lake finding it was very shallow – not deeper than 5 m (16.4 ft.). They threw dynamite into it and found nothing, not even pejerrey (silverside) fish, abundant in Epuyén River. Could the beast have eaten all of the lakes’ fish? Had it moved on?

Frey believed that the animal had left the tiny lake and swam downstream to Lake Puelo via Epuyén River. They widened their search to explore them, finding nothing. Frey was not discouraged because the local people “firmly believe in the existence of this strange animal”.

Sheffield somehow got the news to the US where Professor Brewster Loomis, a paleontologist of Amherst College, who had been in Patagonia back in 1911, was quoted in the New York Times as skeptically stating that while in Patagonia he too had heard stories of monsters which he disregarded because “the imaginative native might see anything”.[2]

The lack of any positive results and the arrival of winter led the team to postpone further exploration until the following summer. It was then that Leonard Matters in the July 1922 issue of Scientific American concluded that the plesiosaur “if it ever existed, appears to have fled to parts unknown”.

The expedition officially called off at the end of the following summer, on April 23, 1923. Onelli remained Director of the Zoo until his untimely death in 1924.

IV. Aftermath

But, what did Mr. Sheffield actually see, that is, if he saw anything?

Actually, he saw nothing, just some tracks; it was his daughter Juana who saw the creature with her brother Teddy.

According to Juana, when she was 10 or 12 years old, she saw a “big creature” and told her father.[1] He too had seen the tracks close to the lake where they usually hunted ducks; “the tracks were wide, but it seemed that [the creature] had short legs”.[3]

In an interview back in the 1970s she added that it “did not have a head or a tail, it looked like a [tree] trunk”;[4] later, in 1995, aged 85, she gave a more detailed account and told that it was not her father, but she who first saw the creature’s tracks.

They resembled “cart tracks”, which surprised them as they were in the soft ground of a “mallín” (bog) by the lake. It seemed to them that something heavy had dragged itself through the plants. She believed that these were “paw marks” and that the creature that made them had a long body and short legs and “where it passed with its belly or body it squashed the small plants”.[5]

She recalled that by the lake something frightened their dog and they noticed tracks that went into the lake and surfaced on the other shore, she also saw something:

half red, half yellowish, nearly the color of leather sole. The animal’s fur was like hairs or feathers. They looked like hairs. We did not see its tail or head. We saw the part of its torso. It was lying there, sleeping in the sun […] That animal walked over a dead cow and did nothing to it; apparently it did not eat meat[5]

It was not restricted to the lake, because she later saw it on a backwater of the Epuyén River, it was hunting fish; she heard a sound like a howling calf and saw the beast: “on a cliff, […] and the fish boiled above in the water […] the noise came from there. The animal howled like a two year old calf”.[5]

Closing comments

This article is just a summary of my book’s chapter on this interesting subject. Considering it is a blog, I have tried to keep the post as short as possible.

After reading Juana Sheffield’s remarks on the beast, it is clear that the animal was a mammal.

Its physical appearance is very similar to other cryptids reported in the region (i.e. Colhue Huapi creature).

Long body and short legs are definitively otter-like. A large otter.
A scary one too (her dog was afraid of it).

Could it have been Muster’s water tiger? Its yellowish hair is similar to what Musters described as the tiger’s fur color.

What we can be sure of is that it was not a plesiosaur. Onelli was right, the creature was a mammal. Though I don't think that it was a surviving mylodon (Onelli's theory).

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means - electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other - except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without prior written permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.

Please read our Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy before accessing this blog.